Monday, January 25, 2010

Complaining (with a bit of Humanism)

It has occurred to me that many of my viewpoints and attitudes and opinions sound a bit more Humanistic than I’d like them to sound. …specifically my opinions and attitudes and viewpoints on things such as how situations should be handled and how responsible everyone is for most everything in their own lives.

See? Humanistic-sounding. At least I think so…

Now, everyone should know that all Humanistic ideas and ideals should not be thrown out simply because they come from a larger body of beliefs with which we disagree.

That would be like banning written text because cuneiform was developed by pagan Phoenicians. Or like banning traditional ceremonial dress because of its origin in ancient Druid cultures.

Yeah, you heard me.

I’m kind of a bitter person. Haha.

Anyway. My Humanistic-sounding philosophy on complaining.

Essentially, you’re not allowed to complain. This is very similar to my philosophy of why I have nearly no sympathy for people who procrastinate. More than 99% of the time, the circumstances that “made” you procrastinate were not beyond your control and you are therefore responsible for any consequences you encounter because of having procrastinated. That sounds a little Humanistic to me. You’re responsible. It’s all about your attitude. Etc. Perhaps Humanistic isn’t quite the right term.

But it’s very human-centered, which makes sense, as a Sociologist and a counselor, but when does human-centered become too human-centered? Hm, yeah, that’s the problem. I’d rather not cross the line from human-centered to Humanistic.

((I am not Humanistic because I believe in the depravity of man and that mankind is far too fallen to ultimately succeed))

Back to complaining.

You’re essentially not allowed to complain. This is very similar to procrastination. You don’t get sympathy from me when you procrastinate because there is a minimal chance your procrastination was beyond your control. It’s your responsibility, so take it like a man.

I’m a pretty cynical person.

You’re not allowed to complain because there is a minimal chance that your situation is beyond your control. It’s your responsibility, so… if you’re not happy, change it. You have the ability to change it. And if your cost-benefit analysis says that it’s unwise to change it, then don’t. And don’t complain. There are obviously enough good reasons to stay where you are. If there are enough good reasons to stay where you are not particularly perfectly happy, then get over it. And now we’re back to how it’s all about attitude.

Quite often, I wish that I could have an audio-blog because I know for a fact that the way you hear my words in your head as you read them is not how I heard them in my head as I wrote them. Perhaps a video-blog! Perhaps one day! I just moved here from Facebook! I can't leave so soon!